Veiled chameleons
Basic Info
A Veiled Chameleon is one of the most popular a enduring lizard in its Genus (genus is like a family.) They are most popular because they have their own personality and seem to grow overnight. It is eaasy to find a Veiled in a petshop, known for its reptiles or not. Veiled chameleons are from to Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia, and live in a variety of different habitats. Because of their preference o humid climates thy need to be warm all the time, or will become sick or worse. The Veiled is a high mateince reptile but they are easy to care for.
Purchasing a Veiled Chameleon
the first thing you need to do is by a captive born chameleon, to prevent unwelcome suprises (parasites, diasese etc.)
Make sure you avoid imported Chameleons because more than half the imports have parasites on them, they are also usually stressed from the long ride in a unknown enviorment.
Healthy chameleons have straight limbs, If you see a chameleon for sale that looks bowlegged and has difficulty grasping onto branches or walking, or has a crooked back or jaw, do not purchase it. Thhis usually means that the lizard has a calcium deficiency, this is prevenable. Check the eyes closely. Healthy chameleons have their eyes open during the day an study thir enviorment lots. Chameleons that do this are sick most of the time. Avoid chameleons with sunken eyes, these animals are dehydrated and stressed. The color of a chameleon is generally a good indicator of its condition. A chameleon that is dark usually is sick, to cold or was parasites. If everything else is all right look inside its mouth for mouth rot, mouthrot is black or dark green in color. To look inside the mouth, let the Veiled crawl onto your hand, and then gently wrap your free hand over the top to the chameleon and restrain. The lizard should hiss, if it ust sits their it is usually sick. If it has all of these it should be in good condition and may be bought.
A good place to by Veiled chameleons is a reptile show. Even small reptile shows have people selling lizards. There are several advantages and disadvantages of purchasing veiled chameleons at reptile shows. An advantage at a reptile show is a bigger variety and a much cheaper price than at a petshop. These shows also offer the chance that you can talk to the person who raised them from eggs. The real dsadvantage at a reptile show is that if yo buy a chameleon is that the seller seems to disappear and offer no help. The major disadvantage of mail orer is that you never see the chameleon until it arrives. If you are purchasing a mail ordered chameleon, before purchasing ask the breeder about captive care, if he doesn't know a lot about captive care then it will soon be revealed.
Unlike other herps the Veiled Chameleon will eat an impressive amount of plant matter in their diet. Make sure that a Veiled chameleon has acess to vegetables at all times. the best way to have this is put a live plant in its terranium. Instead you might use "veggie-clips" to clip a section of collard leaf to the side of the cage. You must also make a hiding place for them, preferaly a structure made of sticks and leaves.
You must put only one Veiled chameleon in a habitat. When veiled chameleons are very young it is possible to house some together without too much stress, but try to house them separately if possible. Veiled cahmeleons are very anti-social and do not tolerate another one of their species in their territory. Male Veileds will fight each other if there spaces are invaded.
Veiled Chameleon Captive Diet
Veiled chameleons, as mentioned before, are primarily insectivorous but will take some plant matter in their diet. You need to balance the Chameleons insects in calcium and other eccential vitamins. If reptiles are not provided with a balanced diet, they will develop a dietary deficiencies such as a condition called metabolic bone disease. Metabolic bone disease is a calcium deficiency that results from an improper diet, and may also be caused by the lack of vitamin D3. To balance their diet it is needed o gut load the crickets.
Gut-loading involves feeding the feeder insects a good, high calcium diet before they are fed to the chameleon. The reasoning behind this considers that predators not only consume the prey item, but they consume the intestinal contents of the prey as well. The intestinal contents of prey items plays an important role in providing a well balanced diet. Variety is extremely important in captive reptile diets, and as such, it is important to vary the gut-loading material fed to feeder insects as well.
Although gut-loading improves the nutritional content of feeder insects tremendously, it is also important to ensure that the chameleon is getting enough calcium. Calcium supplementation is an easy way to provide for this necessity. High quality calcium supplements can be purchased at good pet stores, or through mail-order companies. After the insects have been properly gut-loaded, put some insects into a plastic bag and add a pinch of supplement. Shake the bag up and down like a shake-and-bake pork chop so the insects are completely coated. If one keeps a large amount of feeder crickets around at one time, it may be difficult to get some in the bag without inadvertently freeing a large number of extra crickets, which will soon end up in your bedroom chirping all night and driving you crazy. To avoid this annoying encounter, simply place a cardboard tube from a used roll of toilet paper or paper towels in with the crickets. A good number of crickets will always choose to hide in such areas, and the tube can be easily lifted, with the crickets inside, and shaken into the coating bag. The feeder insects should be coated with calcium supplement every day for young veiled chameleons, and every other day for adult veiled chameleons. Young veileds must be fed every day, twice a day if possible. The best starter food source for young veileds is small crickets, as young veileds tend to regurgitate other insects such as mealworms (Tremper, 1995). Adult veileds will eat every other day. The best way to offer feeder insects to veiled chameleons is in a raised dish. Use an opaque dish with smooth sides so the insects cannot crawl out, but the chameleoncan easily locate its food. This prevents the insects from dispersing into the cage and irritating the animal while it sleeps. Variety and proper supplementation are the most important aspects of the veiled chameleon captive diet. Another important aspect of veiled chameleon captive diets is providing clean drinking water.
